South Coast Rail Project holds open house at Taunton High School

Friday

Oct 11, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 11, 2013 at 11:16 AM

More than 1,000 riders a day will board a commuter train in Taunton as part of the proposed South Coast Rail, according to updated ridership projections shared on Tuesday by officials from the transportation project.

Marc Larocque

More than 1,000 riders a day will board a commuter train in Taunton as part of the proposed South Coast Rail, according to updated ridership projections shared on Tuesday by officials from the transportation project.

The South Coast Rail, a state project to bring commuter rail services to Taunton, Fall River and New Bedford, held the first of two open house events at Taunton High School Tuesday night, drawing members of the community who hoped to learn more about the project. South Coast Rail Project members staffed booths throughout the high school’s cafeteria, explaining findings from the Army Corps of Engineers report. The report was released in late September, with a recommendation for a train route through Stoughton as the most environmentally friendly regional transportation plan, among several studied over a five-year period.

Amid the myriad of statistics and projections, South Coast Rail provided updated ridership projections for each of 10 proposed new stations.

For the proposed Taunton Station site, which would be located at the corner of Arlington Street and Route 44, a total of 670 riders will board a train there each day, according to the new ridership figures shared by the South Coast Rail. At the proposed Taunton Depot site, which would be behind where the Target department store is off of Route 140, there would be 400 riders each day, project officials said.

In total, at all of the proposed new stations, there will be 9,140 people boarding each day.
Jean Fox, project manager for the South Coast Rail, said that the open house events were being held to help explain the daunting, 2,000-page Army Corps of Engineers report, which the state accepted as its final environmental report, ahead of the federal and state permitting processes.

“They can come here and get the snapshot,” Fox said. “I have all hands on deck, the whole project team here, to help folks understand what’s included in this document.”

Fox urged citizens to go to the South Coast Rail website, www.SouthCoastRail.com, to check out a “complete reader’s guide” to the Army Corps report, with a chapter-by-chapter breakdown on subjects including water quality, wetland impact, potential impact on historical American Indian sites, noise impact, and many other subjects.

The South Coast Rail Project will hold another open house event on October 17, 5:30 p.m., at the Advanced Technology Manufacturing Center at UMass Dartmouth, at 151 Martine St.

Representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers were present at the Taunton event, including Alan Anacheka-Nasemann, an ecologist who was the project manager behind the report.

Anacheka-Nasemann answered a question about the impact of the proposed South Coast Rail on the Hockomock Swamp and wooded areas, explaining that he believes a train coming through would be better for the ecosystem than doing nothing at all.

“By and large on the existing corridor, the forested area is already cleared with parts of the canopy growing over the top,” Anacheka-Nasemann said. “Other parts are wide open swaths. You have people moving up and down the track on ATVs, occasionally doing doughnuts and spinning out in wetland areas. All those impacts will be eliminated (by the train), and since there will be a trestle, vernal pool animals will have a safer crossing than today.”

Anacheka-Nasemann also explained the ridership projections, saying they were modeled using the best predictors available, using methods approved by the Federal Transportation Administration.

Asked about criticism of the projects — that the numbers are too high and that no one wants to ride around two hours on the commuter rail and then the T, from New Bedford to work somewhere in Boston — Anacheka-Nasemann said that there are indications that people would prefer riding in a train where they can use wireless Internet rather than driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

“I can’t speak to others’ behavior, but in this day and age some people will find (train) commuters more productive than being by the wheel,” he said.

Carol Doherty, a school committee member in Taunton, said she attended the event to learn more about how the South Coast Rail could affect the safety of children in the community. She pointed out nine grade crossings that could present danger for children walking in the area.

“We want to make sure the children are safe where the train is crossing,” said Doherty, who added that she is a supporter of the project, saying it could help the local economy. “I haven’t heard much about this. But today it was mentioned to me that safety areas could be established, and also education programming, which is a given. We need to look carefully at this.”

While there are many supporters of the proposed commuter rial project, which is expected to cost $1.8 if using electric-powered locomotives, there were some residents from Stoughton who were wary about the project. Steve Mitchell, who is on the community finance committee, said that the project will mean more traffic in Stoughton.

An upcoming Town Meeting article in Stoughton asks for $150,000 to fight the South Coast Rail. “They said they are going to have two trains at 50 to 60 miles per hour through Stoughton Center, and we have a lot of small roads that are very congested already, which would present a big safety problem.”

Raynham Town Planner John Charbonneau was there checking out a rendering of a proposed station for Raynham, which would be located just south of Raynham Park on Route 138. The station would have 432 parking spaces. Charbonneau said he is wondering about the difficulty of parking at the current Stoughton Station, and if there would be difficulty parking at the proposed Raynham station.

“That can be an issue at some of these stations. If you don’t get there by a certain time, it’s full,” Charbonneau said. “Right now, it’s tough to tell. You can make an educated guess.”

Charbonneau also looked at the train crossing in Raynham. “It’s going to have an effect on traffic, definitely,” he said. Charbonneau said it will be potentially be two years before design and permitting are done, and the effect of the train on Raynham won’t truly be clear until the train is running.

While the Raynham station will have 432 spaces, renderings of the Taunton Station showed that it will have 210 parking spaces, while the Taunton Depot will have 398.

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